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“I’m glad you came,” I said.
“You know,” Dean said. “You could’ve dressed up a little bit.”
I pulled back to glare at him. He was smiling, and then his smile faded when our eyes met. He put a hand on my cheek and pulled me in for a soft kiss. I’d forgotten we weren’t alone until there were more whoops and some clapping from the crowd.
I kissed him, not caring if anyone watched. For the first time in months, I felt at peace inside. I didn’t have to hide from my feelings anymore. I didn’t need to wonder what was wrong with me–to wonder why I could feel so much for someone who didn’t feel the same way for me.
All along, he’d just been trying to care for me in his own way, misguided as it might have been. I hugged my arms around him. He was my big, stupid, well-intentioned boyfriend. My boyfriend who I wished had just tried not to be so freaking noble and saved me all the heartache. “My butt is getting really cold,” I said. My pajama bottoms were thin and the night was near freezing.
Dean raised an eyebrow. “My lady. If you need help warming up your butt, you only have to ask.”
I bit my lip. “Hmm. I don’t know. I’ve never been on a real date with you, and I don’t do that with guys I haven’t dated. I’m a proper kind of lady, you know.”
“That’s a shame, because I’m not a proper kind of gentleman.”
It turned out, that was not a bluff. Once the people from town had cleared out and congratulated us, Dean practically rushed me into his car and back to his room at the Ashford Inn. Our clothes were off before we hit the bed, and for the first time, I slept with Dean and didn’t even try to pretend it wasn’t everything I’d always wanted. That he wasn’t everything I’d always wanted.
We were laying in bed afterward and my head was on his bare chest, listening to the steady thump of his heart. “I love you,” he said. “I think I’ve loved you since that first kiss in the lobby back in Asheville, even if I didn’t know what to call it then.”
I took a split second to look inside myself. It wasn’t hard to find. When I thought of Dean, I felt a kind of gushing hope and excitement for the future. I felt safe. I felt warm. I felt happy. Dean made me see the difference between him and all the guys who had come before. When you really loved somebody, giving them your heart wasn’t a choice anymore. It wasn’t a risk or a hard decision. It was a law of nature. Love like that meant your heart was already theirs. The risk was as unavoidable as gravity. It was fate.
But all of that didn’t mean I had to make it easy for him. “Hmm,” I said. “That’s nice.”
Dean rolled on top of me, pinning me down with a devilish look in his eye. “That’s nice? That’s all you have to say for me?”
“Mhm,” I said. I bit the corner of my lip, trying not to smile. His eyes searched mine.
“I love you, Pearl. Whether you say it back or not, I’m going to keep telling you. And you’ll just have to deal with it.”
I finally grinned. “And I love you too. I loved you even when you were trying your hardest not to break my heart by breaking my heart.”
He kissed me. “Sorry about that.”
“The apology might have been worth the three months of pain.”
“Good. I spent the whole plane ride searching the internet for ideas on how to apologize when you’ve been a colossal idiot. It was either that, or I was going to get you a piñata shaped like me. I’d let you whack it and then the frog necklace would be inside. But I called some piñata guys and they said it’d take at least two or three days.”
“I’m going to go out on a limb and say you made the right choice by not doing that one.”
“Good. But I was going to keep trying if you turned me down, anyway. That was only Plan A.
“What was your next move, then?”
“Next, I was going to have Molly Ashford start working on you. Apparently, she has experience in the matchmaking game.”
“I’m almost sad I missed that. Is it too late to change my mind and pretend I don’t forgive you?”
“Yes,” Dean kissed me again. “Because the moment you took that frog necklace, you were mine. And I’m planning to keep you.”
I ran my fingertip down the center of his chest, smiling softly. “I might just let you.”
44
EPILOGUE - DEAN
Epilogue - Dean
Two Months Later
The bonfire roared. Logs popped and hissed. Most of the cold from Winter had long since faded, but nights here were still pleasantly cool. Pearl looked up at me, leaning in to rest her head on my shoulder and smiling.
